~
Sunday, November 30, 2008 8:30 a.m.
22 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
It is a beautiful winter morning here on Gomer Hill, even
though
it is still officially autumn. The snow has settled a
little, but it remained
too deep and dense to blaze new trails yesterday,
especially as a solo trek,
so I headed up the Smith Road and stayed on the
snowmobile track. There
have been only a few sleds running so far, and I
didn’t encounter any as I glided
silently between the tall balsam and spruce trees that
border the road. I saw many
deer, and as I was downwind I was able to get pretty
close before they bounded
away with a startled snort and flash of white tail. I
remembered that this is the rut
season for deer, and having been threatened by a randy
buck once many years
ago I decided that I had better make some noise and
started to sing as I skied
along. I try not to think about the other big game that
is afoot in my neighbor-
hood, the bears, wolves, and big cats; I have seen no
such tracks in the snow
lately to fuel my fear, and hoped that my showtunes would
keep them away
as well. The only animal that has ever truly frightened
me in nearly forty years
up here has been that one buck, shaking his antlers and
glaring at me like I was
lunch as he moved stiff-legged in my direction. That
ended with me up a tree and
him circling and pawing the ground for a while before
moving on. I like to think
that the wild creatures up here are mostly peace-loving
and respectful of me,
or I would never venture out alone. It would be different
if I lived in an area
where they were habituated to humans and associated them
with a food
source; in that case, I might carry some pepper spray and
an air horn.
I am probably in more danger of being bitten by a rabid
raccoon in
the back yard than one of the bigger beasts in the forest.
It is best
to keep all one’s senses honed while in the wild;
when in doubt,
sing real loud. If nothing else, it will take your mind
off the old-
wives tales of big bad wolves and baby-stealing panthers.
Have an adventurous day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, November 29, 2008 8:30 a.m.
24 degrees, windy, partly sunny
Ahhh! Divided sky, the wind blows high ... (Phish)
I wish you all could wallow in the intoxicating view from
the top of Gomer hill at this exact moment ! The sky is
indeed
split by a broad stripe of blue sandwiched between two
phat dark
storm clouds looming large to the north and south. The
sun streams
down on new snow, and frost crystals whirl in a dervish
dance at the
whim of gusty wind; Jack Frost is definitely calling the
tune on this awe-
some morning. We skied yesterday for a while, keeping to
a narrow snow-
mobile track on the Smith Road, as the snow off the trail
was too deep and
sticky to navigate easily. When we first hit the trail,
wet snow stuck to the bot-
toms of my skis with a tenacity that made for difficult
going. I must have picked
up some road salt when stepping into the bindings. Thank
goodness one of my
friends had some e-z glide, so I was soon zipping along
with great joy. We only
saw two snowmobiles, probably the same folks who had made
the original tracks.
Indeed, snowmobiles are not supposed to be on the trails
at all until deer season is
over, which is a week from tomorrow (December 7th). While
the snow depth and
texture was a little tricky for backcountry skiing
yesterday, the weather was perfect.
Flurries traded off with periods of sun; although the
wind was fierce in our yard, once
in the shelter of tall trees all was still and calm. We
saw many deer tracks, with several
of them pressed into the track left by the sleds. This
morning’s fresh snow is already lat-
ticed with deer sign across the meadows, as well as the
tiny paired tracks of the resident
squirrel, who is still keeping out of sight. Two of our
cats raced outside first thing this
morning; I think that squirrel is in for a merry chase
that could end badly... for him.
Time for him to go back to the forest where he belongs;
now scat !
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Friday, November 28, 2008 9:30 a.m.
29 degrees, breezy, partly sunny, snowing
A lovely course of lake effect snow is streaming
down upon
Gomer Hill, a light and fluffy layer atop the windblown
goo of
the past week. The town plow has kicked up snowbanks of
three to four feet along the roads, and have done a great
job
so far of keeping the secondary roads cleared during this
snowy November. We are under a lake effect snow warn-
ing for the next twenty-four hours, and it looks like
Turin is
the target for the really good stuff. Snow Ridge Ski
Resort is
opening for the season tomorrow, so if you have a need
for
speed, head on up and let gravity do the work. If back-
country adventure is more your thing, reports are that
the
BREIA trails in Boonville are in great shape, and the
state
trails at Carpenter Road, while still largely untracked,
offer
an opportunity to trek through picturesque snow-blessed
evergreen alleys and old-growth grandmother maple
trees looming over the swamps and spinneys.
Let it snow !
Daisy
~
Thursday, November 27, 2008 8:00 a.m.
28 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy
Snow has stopped for now but the wind is still with us.
The surface of fresh snow is studded with bits of twig
and
bark that have been stripped from our guardian trees at
either
side of the driveway. We probably received about eighteen
inches
of snow since the storm started Monday night, and it
looks like it will
play itself out in counties to the north of here. We are
traveling to the valley
for dinner later today, joining friends for a
Thanksgiving celebration at their home,
shifting from our long-held tradition of sticking close
to home on this day. A little change
is good. We hope to get out and ski this morning; perhaps
a trip to thestate trails at Carpen
ter Road would be in order, to get out of the wind and
see what’s new on that side of the Hill.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:00 a.m.
28 degrees, breezy, overcast, snowing
We are in for more snow over the next two days,
and thank
goodness it is not as wet and gooey as yesterday’s
offering. It
was a real challenge to plow the yard, and the roofs
needed to be
cleared as well. It is what we refer to as heart
attack snow, the stuff
that is so heavy one needs to be in good cardiovascular
condition to
even think about moving it with a shovel. If the heaviest
weight you
ever lift is the remote to your home entertainment center,
rethink do-
ing your own shoveling and hire a kid until you tend to
your own fitness.
I personally enjoy clearing paths after the plowtruck has
done most of the
work. I take pride in squaring off the corners around the
doorways; I work
at my own pace, no rush to get the job done, tossing
snowballs to the dog
who likes to keep me company while I dig and push. I grew
up in the mid-
west, where we had some snow but not even close to the
amounts we see
here on Tug Hill. Our driveways were gravel, and I
don’t think we even
owned a snow shovel; we swept the drive and the sidewalks
with a heavy
corn broom, and it was hard work, in my opinion harder
than shoveling. It
was an unwritten rule in the neighborhood that you kept
the sidewalks clear-
ed for pedestrians, and in those days we walked
everywhere. We walked to
school, and in three blocks every walkway was kept clear
as a summer day
all winter long. We walked to the movie theater a mile
away for Saturday
matinees, and we sometimes even walked downtown to the
two major
department stores, a couple of miles along a broad
highway that had
well-maintained sidewalks. Now I live in a place where it
would
be a ten mile round trip hike to buy a carton of milk,
and fifty
miles to the nearest mall. So now we walk for fun and
fitness,
and to see what wonderful things abound on Gomer Hill.
If it isn’t already part of your daily routine, add
walking
to the list of must-do activities. And if you aren’t
used
to shoveling snow, work your way up to it.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 8:30 a.m.
31 degrees, calm, overcast, snowing
We have received about eight inches of snow so far
from this current storm;
it is very heavy and nearly impossible to move with the
plowtruck. We are going
to see if the vintage snowblower currently attached to
the tractor will shift the wet
mess, but first we need to put chains on the tires. We
are in big trouble if the snow
changes over to rain, as it may do if the temperature
rises a couple of degrees. While
technically a pain in the booty, it is very pretty out
there, sticking to every branch and
tiny twig. The spruce trees are an homage to winter, and
the scene is peaceful (as long
as you don’t overhear the expletives currently
coming from the direction of the barn).
We are nearly a month away from the solstice, and already
it is more wintry than
we have seen in a long time. This snow is extremely
slippery where it has been
compacted, so take care in parking lots and in your own
yard. It looks
like our post-feast hike this Thanksgiving will be a ski
tour instead.
Have a fine day,
Daisy
~
Monday, November 24, 2008 8:30 a.m.
18 degrees, calm, mostly cloudy
There is a small break in the clouds to the east,
and the sun streamed down over the mountains for
just a few minutes, brightening the morning for those
within the Blue Line and giving hope to those of us on
the opposite side of the valley. Yesterday we finally got
out on our skis for part of the afternoon, and while it
was
awesome to be outdoors surrounded by flurries in the
crisp
fresh air, it was not the effortless glide of my dreams.
The snow
is fairly deep and a little mealy, providing good
traction for uphill
climbs but not a lot of wheeeeeeee! on the
downhills. When I realized
that the trip would be more of a plod than a swoosh, I
readjusted my ex-
pectations to accommodate the less-than-stellar
conditions. We stayed in
open spaces because it is still deer hunting season, and
even decked out in
an orange vest and hat, I am uncomfortable passing
through the forests this
time of year. The deer must feel safer in the meadows as
well; there are several
well-worn paths crisscrossing the fields and swamps, and
many melted concavities
where they have bedded down for the night. I have never
seen so many beds out in
the open like this; they are usually concealed deep in
the woods, and often are located
on the edge of a gorge, seldom in plain view. I peeked
into our bluebird houses and two
of them are occupied by deer mice, staring inky-eyed out
at me from their tangle of milk-
weed fluff and thistledown. They are welcome to stay for
the long cold winter, but must
agree to vacate at the end of March so that bluebirds and
tree swallows can take over.
I don’t know if the same mice use the same spot the
whole time, or if it is a series of
little squatters. I do know that they keep the boxes very
clean; all I find in March
is fluff, no little pellets. One box near the garden has
a few rugosa rose hips
inside; some have been shredded and some are still whole.
There are oodles
of squirrel tracks leading to and from the trees in the
yard, but we haven’t
seen any actual squirrels in a couple of weeks. I wonder
if the invisible
squirrel is using the nesting box as a food cache? I love
the tales
the critters weave throughout the seasons. Large and
small,
every wild thing makes life on Tug Hill richer and more
interesting from their very existence.
Enjoy your wild life,
Daisy
Sunday, November 23, 2008 9:30 a.m.
15 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
We have another beautiful sparkly cold morning
here on Gomer Hill.
Sheets and pillowcases that I hung on the line yesterday
morning are slowly
drying, and the ice crystals that formed almost as quick
as I pegged them up
have done a wonderful job of magnifying the sun’s
rays and rendering the pure
cotton fibers whiter than white. When using the winter
sun to bleach things outdoors,
make sure that none of the items have elastic in them, or
the freezing process will ruin
it. We are headed into a week of uncertain weather that
will most certainly contain all
of the elements of late November. The upcoming
Thanksgiving feast day will see more
folks on the road than usual this week, as they head off
to join family and friends for the
big feed. Whatever your destination, take extra care on
the highways and byways, and
watch out for surprises, both human and wildlife. It is
hard to gauge which is more dan-
gerous, someone driving while talking on a cellphone and
drinking a latte, or a deer that
has been blinded by headlights. The day after
Thanksgiving also launches the official start
of the holiday shopping season. Might I suggest that,
instead of heading to the nearest mall
or big box store, that you give your own local shops
first crack at your hard-earned money.
If we are to turn this recession around, it is important
to keep local stores open for business.
Plan a shopping trip with friends in your own
neighborhood, village, or town. Make a day of it,
complete with lunch in a slow-food joint, and give your
home-town vendors a chance at fiscal
success. Buy some handcrafted items, hats and sweaters
and wreaths and handbags, made
with love by folks you know, instead of cheap plastic
crap from China. Visit localharvest.org
to find good local sources of food for your holiday table.
Don’t forget private services as well;
who wouldn’t love a gift certificate for a massage,
pedicure, gym membership, or six-pack
of yoga classes ? As added incentive, think of the gas
you will save !
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, November 22, 2008 9:15 a.m.
10 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
Tiny motes of frost dance in the breeze; sometimes
wintertime
on Gomer Hill is much like being inside a giant snow
globe. This
morning, the globe is filled with silver glitter, not the
standard white
bits of opaque fluff, and someone has just given it a
really good shake.
Three deer are in the road downhill from here, eating
something from
the surface. Perhaps they are cleaning up after the
turkeys that were
in that exact spot yesterday. I can only imagine how
utterly lacking
in nutrients turkey poo must be, especially if it was
from the turkeys
that were feeding on deer poo yesterday. Circle of life,
indeed ! I am
all for recycling, but that is ridiculous. I have not
been out on skis yet;
the young heart is willing, the old feet are not. We have
been walking
on the plowed roads, and have seen more deer tracks than
usual for
this time of year. They take to the deep woods during
hunting season,
but lately they have been all over the roads, even during
broad daylight.
Drive with care, and bag your limit.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Friday, November 21, 2008 9:00 a.m.
13 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
A stiff breeze straight out of the north makes it seem
even colder
than 13 out there this morning. The cats chose to stay
indoors after
deliberating on the back step for a minute or so. There
are frost crystals
sparkling in the sunlit air, and snow is in the forecast
for later. I still have not
seen the little critter whose tracks circle the house
many times, but birds are
very much on the scene this morning. There were a half
dozen starlings in the
big maple tree next to the garage, the first I have seen
in several weeks. One
gave a loud whistle, as if to command my attention, and
then they were silent.
I hope they stick around; I like starlings. A small flock
of turkeys is in the mid-
dle of the road, pecking at something on the tarmac, grit
or salt or maybe even
deer poo. Three deer bounded across the road as I came up
the Hill last night,
in the same spot where the turkeys now plod. Blue jays
have been part of the
view for about a month, and I suspect they are eating
seeds from the myriad
cones in our landscape spruce trees. There are lots of
cones on the ever-
greens this year, which indicates a long and snowy winter,
if you be-
lieve what the old folks say. I’m ready for that,
are you?
Enjoy whatever Mother Nature sends your way,
Daisy
~
Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:30 a.m.
21 degrees, mostly sunny, calm, flurries
After an overnight low in the single digits (nine!),
the sun is
giving it a shot at burning the biting chill from the
morning. It
must not be too frigid out there, as two of our cats seem
to be
enjoying a dozy bask in front of the barn door, ignoring
me when
I invited them back into the warm kitchen. The house is
encircled
with small pawprints, probably those of a red or grey
squirrel. They
dash in and out of bushes and shrubs, pausing at every
tree as if a
quick trip up and down interrupted their marathon; this
certainly
gives the cats a motive to stand guard outside. I
haven’t seen the
grey squirrel that entertained me two weeks ago, assuming
our pop-
lar tree was just a pit stop for him, but those tracks
could very well be
his. I didn’t get out on skis yesterday as planned,
but hope to soon; some-
times our best intentions become complicated by random
circumstance, little
things like having a can of peaches explode in the pantry.
There will be plenty
of opportunities to trek about the hill on skis, but
clearing away sticky peach
goo is a one-time (I hope) job that requires immediate
completion. If I have
learned anything in all my many years, it is that life is
much easier if one can
adapt ones agenda to accommodate unplanned surprises.
Sometimes you
need to cancel a lunch date to wash motor oil out of the
long-haired barn
cat, or put everything on hold while food poisoning runs
its course.
Thank goodness all of those things don’t usually
happen all
on the same day, or even within the same year !
Roll with the changes,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 8:30 a.m.
16 degrees, calm, mostly cloudy, flurries
Little snowflakes mosey around outside my window,
falling down
gently over the garden, and dancing a little jig as they
near the heat
enveloping our house. The ones closest to the chimney are
actually
falling up, pulled along by the smoke as it rises. This
is the coldest
morning we have seen so far this winter season, and I
heard on the
radio that it has set a new record for today’s date.
It is probably safe
to say that the snow is here to stay. Today is cold but
wind-free, so I
am definitely going to check out the snow on my skinny
skis. Yester-
day’s wind packed it tight, and even though the
ground is still slushy
underneath, there has been so much snow that I don’t
think the water
will seep through as I make tracks. Blue jays and
woodpeckers flit
around among the snowflakes, with crows lingering atop
the tall
trees in the hedgerows. The action is all in the air, no
deer
or turkeys in sight; no llamas either.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 8:00 a.m.
21 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
The sky is amazing this morning, layered with
purply-grey cloud masses
and true blue patches of sky. The sun streams around the
clouds, the great
shining orb itself concealed but so brilliant it cannot
be entirely shut away from
view. It’s like a bucketful of sun, and we are
looking at the base of the bucket
but the rays spill over the edges and bathe the view with
surreal vividness. The
surface of new snow is crisscrossed with tracks of all
sizes of critters, from big
deer to the smallest rodents. Cat tracks disappear under
the sunporch; must be
the long-haired grey cat that has been hanging around
lately. I wish he would leave;
he has our three legged cat all riled up. He took off
after the interloper the other night,
and didn’t come home until I went out searching for
him with our new giant flashlight. Boy,
if you want to find anything in the dark, get
yourself a 17.5 million candlepower flashlight !
(New toy, easily amused...) I didn’t submit an
article to this page yesterday, as we were
without power for much of the day due to the heavy snows
of the previous night. Depths
ranged from ten inches to three feet in drifted areas,
but it looks like we received close
to two feet of snow from that single lake effect event.
It was very hard to plow, wet
heavy stuff that compressed into ice as soon as the tires
rolled over it. The truck
kept trying to spin around on the slick surface, and I am
lucky I didn’t get stuck
for good. I gave up after clearing a few passes from the
garage to the road, and
shoveled paths to the house and barn by hand. I did not
go to work yesterday,
waiting to see if I needed to switch our power source
from National Grid to
generator, so I had a free afternoon to continue with
current projects. Here
is something surprising that I learned: You can balance a
raw egg on end
even when it is not the equinox. I did it with three eggs
while waiting for
spackle to dry. Fresh eggs are harder to balance than
older ones, and
now I know that the time of year has nothing to do with
the feat. I just
had never tried it before except at the autumnal and
vernal equinoxes.
Try it your own self, see what happens.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, November 16, 2008 8:00 a.m.
30 degrees, windy, mostly cloudy, flurries
A very windy night has given way to an even
windier morning.
Yesterday was rainy but mild, and we were able to sneak a
good
long walk in between the showers. A little bit of snow
decorates the
meadows and is beginning to gather on the pavement as
well. We may
see some lake effect snow later today and on into the
night; perhaps this
is the snow that will stick around until April. We have
been eager to glide
around the meadows on our skinny skis, and it looks like
we may very well
have the chance before the week is over. I saw something
very odd on my
way home from town yesterday. As I crested Gomer Hill, I
saw a woman
leading what, at first glance, appeared to be a white
horse. As I drew near,
I saw that it was a big white llama with a halter and
lead, taking a walk like
some giant dog on a leash, just a pleasant stroll on a
drizzly November day.
I slowed down and gave her a little wave, not fully
processing what I had
seen until I pulled into our yard. Mmmmmm, yup, a llama !
Today looks
like a good day to stay indoors and continue repairing
and painting
ceilings that need a good fresh coat of white. White
seems to
be the non-color of the day, inside and out.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, November 15, 2008 8:30 a.m.
48 degrees, breezy, overcast, fog, rain
It’s a busy morning out there; sometimes
there is a still moment like now,
when a few geese honk overhead, shielded from my view by
fog. Otherwise
the morning holds swirly mist and singing gusts, with
rain pelting the windows and
runoff gurgling in the ditch across the road. Yesterday
was an excellent day, almost
spring-like with bright sunshine and warm breezes. I hung
laundry out for what may
very well be the last time of 2008, and did a few
pleasant garden jobs. I cleaned up
the flower bed nearest the house, cutting back perennial
stems and digging out a few
rogue dandelions. Pansies and violas gave up the last of
their blossoms, which now
sit in a small vase on the windowsill over the kitchen
sink. Bee balm has started to
creep out of its bed and into the lawn, so next spring
one of the first things I will
have to do is try to tame that aromatic mass of tangled
roots, moving some to
another spot, and giving some to friends. The original
plants were yanked from
a creek bank on the Plummer Road, discovered as a flash
of scarlet while on a
bike ride thirty years ago. They survived five miles tied
bare-root to my handlebars,
so I shouldn’t be surprised that they are so sturdy
and aggressive at expanding their
territory. The kitchen still smells of bergamot; I
brought the fragrance in on my work
gloves which are on the warming shelf of the kitchen
range. I also had a chance to
plant tulip and daffodil bulbs, mixing in rich compost
and dead leaves as I backfilled
the trenches. We ended the day with a walk around the
east meadow, gathering dead
branches to use for kindling during the cold mornings to
come. Most of my chore coats
have a couple of old stockings in the pocket, lightweight
to carry and perfect for holding
the sticks together in a loose bale. Lately I have
reminded myself of the woodcutter of
olden fairy tales who was always out gathering a bundle
of faggots in the dead of winter;
Oscar Wilde wrote a wonderful story with such a scene, The
Star Child. It is too bad
such a wonderful old term as faggot has fallen
into disrepute. For my own sake, I still
refer to the odds and ends of twigs and branches that I
carry home from short walks
as such, often with no one to hear me but the dog and the
ravens who keep watch.
Words are funny things: one is often judged by the words
they choose, and no
matter how well-intentioned they are, it is up to the
listener to interpret them
and form an opinion of the speaker, based often on mere
words.
Take care, and use your words well.
Daisy
~
Friday, November 14, 2008 8:30 a.m.
49 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy
The sky is clear to the east, and sun reflects off
of the wet Payne Road,
so intensely shiny that it is all I can look at this
morning. Cars move as shadows,
silhouettes against the crazy gleam of pavement. Route 26
also shows up better than
usual, but the angle of the sun doesn’t hit it with
quite the same effect. We have a very
nice day ahead of us, and now that our snow is mostly
gone I can plant the bulbs I dug
up last summer while renovating a perennial bed. I think
I will just row them out along
the edge of one garden, and let them naturalize as I have
hundreds of others. We are
never short of cut flowers in the springtime, as spring-flowering
bulbs have a way of
doubling every year, and a hundred initially planted
become thousands of blooms in
no time at all. Fifteen years ago we planted a half
bushel of mixed daffodil bulbs, and
it was one of the best investments we ever made. There
are at least a dozen different
varieties; they begin blooming in late April and keep it
up for nearly two months. This
is a good time of year to purchase bulbs, as many stores
have reduced the price dras-
tically. Once I bought a whole bag full of tulips in all
hues for five cents a bulb. Now
they appear early every summer underneath the rugosa
hedge, all shades of red,
orange, and yellow, producing tall stately flowers just
before the roses open up
to the sun. It is nice to imagine all of spring’s
beautiful offerings in November,
at the cusp of another winter.
It’s all good,
Daisy
~
Thursday, November 13, 2008 7:30 a.m.
34 degrees, breezy, cloudy
Light fog blankets the valley, but here on Gomer Hill we
are
merely cloudy and cold. The air is damp with evaporating
snow
but it seems to be wafting straight back into the sky to
resume its
place in the water cycle. The magic of all that water
recycling over
and over boggles the mind. Every time I hop into the
shower, there is
a possibility that the water that streams so effortlessly
out of the fixture
contains molecules that once were part of
Cleopatra’s milk bath, or the
sweat from a young Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
gianormous guns after a
killer workout, or tears that fell from Mary Todd
Lincoln’s eyes that fate-
ful night at Ford’s theater. If I thought about it
too much, I would have to
remove water from my favorite beverage list. W. C. Fields
once said,
“I never drink water because of the disgusting
things that fish do in it.”
Fortunately, we have an excellent filter for our tasty
pure spring water,
just in case fish are able to find their way into the
system.
Skoal! Prosit! Salut! And Cheers !
Daisy
~
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:00 a.m.
32 degrees, calm, cloudy
Our wet slushy snow set up hard as a rock
overnight,
but so much melted yesterday that there is no longer
enough
continuous coverage to make even one trip around the
meadow on
skis.It should be nice hiking however, and we have a trek
planned for
later this morning. I would like to see what kind of
birds are hanging around
in the woods now that the chainsaw and hydraulic splitter
noises are gone for
another season. We were in town for much of yesterday,
but when we returned
home the banks that had been kicked up by the morning
plow were pretty much
nonexistent. Trees are once again unadorned by white, and
so we wait patiently
for more winter to eventually arrive for our enjoyment.
And I truly do enjoy it,
could not imagine living in a place that didn’t have
four distinct seasons. Maybe
as we get even older, we will trade in this lifestyle of
challenging seasonal chores
for one that allows for more leisure time, but for now,
the gardening and mowing
and raking up and wood-cutting helps keep us young and in
the game. As long
as there is still time for hiking, biking, skiing,
cooking, reading, part-time jobs
(both for pay and as volunteers) and watching the
occasional cheesy videos,
the hard work we accomplish is in perfect balance with
the other activities we
choose for ourselves. Balance is important, and requires
almost constant adjust-
ment. Being flexible with your schedule is often more
important than accomplish-
ing the tasks you have set for yourself. Being able to
roll with changes in the weather,
personal aches and pains, and a full schedule of welcome
visitors means that sometimes
the floor stays dirty and the hamper is overflowing with
muddy work clothes while you
take a contemplative stroll to straighten your back and
quiet your monkey-mind.
So if you drop in today to say hi, make sure you remove
your glasses at the door.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:30 a.m.
30 degrees, breezy, overcast, flurries
Light airy snowflakes drift across the view on
this cold November morn.
We have had four inches of snow so far from this little
storm, heavy wet
stuff that has become saturated with groundwater and is
hard to move
with a shovel. The town plow has cleared the roadway,
starting early
in the season with its overkill loads of salted sand.
Visibility was very
poor on the drive home from work last night, with that
peculiar psych-
edelic ribbon-y streaming that snow does when caught in
headlight beams,
like the special zipping lickety-split through space
FX from an old Star
Wars movie. Driving slowly didn’t help at all,
as the wind was whipping fat
flakes by the windshield very fast even when I was
motionless in the parking
lot. At least there was virtually no traffic on the route
home, and no deer wait-
ing to lurch in front of the car at an inconvenient time.
The wind has blown all
of the pretty frosting from the trees’ branches, and
rearranged it so that the
western side of each trunk is thick with white, starkly
beautiful in contrast
with dark wet bark. The only spots of color in the view
right now are four
vivid blue jays, scrounging the last weed seeds from the
garden. The Hill is
quiet, as there is no school on this Veteran’s Day;
folks must be keeping
snug at home. If not for today’s appointments, we
would do the same,
but there will be plenty of time for that as the winter
wears on.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
Monday, November 10, 2008 8:30 a.m.
33 degrees, windy, partly sunny
A couple of inches of wet sticky snow clings to
every twig
and tree on top of Gomer Hill. Visibility is very good
and I can
see that no snow adorns the trees and meadows that
stretch out
through the Black River Valley, however the Blue Line of
spruce
and balsams at the foothills of the Adirondacks is
frosted white. A
strong line of lake effect snow streams across the land
just north of
here, and it looks like Watertown is getting hammered. We
finished
with most of our firewood tasks yesterday; although we
have left two
piles of big rounds that still need to be split,
remaining where they are
over the winter months won’t hurt them at all. We
simply ran out of
time, and accomplished what was absolutely necessary
before the
weather turned wintry. We still need to clear brush away
from two
parts of our ski trail; sometimes trees don’t land
exactly where you
want them to, and we decided it will be easier to move
the brush
out of the way than to bushwhack a detour around the
detritus.
Professional loggers have created many new trails nearby
over
the past summer, and we can’t wait to explore them
on skis
when the snow gets deeper. I cleaned my bike and put it
away for the winter yesterday, and the sight of shimmer-
ing white on this sunny morning has me excited about
sliding around the forests, swamps, and meadows
of Tug Hill during the long snowy months ahead.
Hey Old Man Winter, ready when you are !
Daisy
~
Sunday,
November 9, 2008 8:45 a.m.
39 degrees, windy, partly sunny
Darkly ominous clouds cover eighty percent of the sky,
but the rest is cool blue and streaming with sunbeams. We
may see some rain later, possibly even some snow, but for
now
the morning is all polished up and ready for more fun in
the woods.
It is cold enough to warrant a base layer of thermal
underwear, at least
on top. I need to find my winter work gloves, I don't
think cotton will fill
the bill today, especially if the wood is wet. We only
have three or four
more cords to pick up, load into the cart, unload, and
stack and that
leaves the rest of the day to relax. Sunday is a day of
rest, or so I was
raised to believe, but that was in my former life as a
princess who wasn't
permitted to so much as touch a lawn mower; that was a
job for boys. As a
girl, I could sweep grass clippings from the sidewalk.
Indeed, keeping the com-
mon walkways pristine was a mandate in our neighborhood,
as well as maintaining
a weed-free and tidy lawn. Our yard here on Gomer Hill is
former cow pasture; if it
weren't for weeds, there would be no greenery at all. We
postpone the first spring-
time mowing until we have had our fill of the beautiful
buttery dandelions that car-
pet the lawn, and then there is the two or three weeks
that we leave wild straw-
berries to ripen and violets to bloom. Our wildly
unpredictable yard would
not pass muster in a midwestern suburban neighborhood,
that's for sure.
So, on this day of rest, we are aiming to get the rest of
our outdoor
tasks completed, the boy jobs and the girl jobs becoming
one
and the same job, equal at last, princess no more.
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, November 8, 2008 9:45 a.m.
48 degrees, breezy, cloudy, raining
We have just returned from unloading two cords of
firewood,
stacking it on palettes in neat rows next to the woodlot.
When
we headed out earlier, the sky threatened rain but it was
a pretty
nice November morning anyway, with a scattering of geese
honking
from above and a brace of bluejays raising a rumpus on
the barn roof.
I hopped on my bike and rode the short distance to the
site, and as I dis-
mounted the first fat raindrops had left their marks on
my work pants. By
the time we started to pile the second cord, we were both
very wet, and
I was half-blind as well, having removed my specs which
were streaming
with water. It will be interesting to see what kind of
job I was able to do
by viewing the row as a whole, rather than as individual
pieces. It was all
split wood, no rounds, so the work went fairly quickly.
As a bonus, the ride
home through the meadow puddles helped remove most of the
mud from my
bike, accumulated on a long ride yesterday. (I hate to
put a bike away dirty,
but I knew I would be going out again this morning.) The
back roads were
surprisingly muddy late in the day, probably the remnants
of last week’s
snowstorm that hadn’t had time to sink in. We passed
many hunters’
trucks, and nearly every seasonal camp was occupied, as
both bird
and deer season are in full swing. We also met up with a
couple of
trappers who were checking their lines for beavers. The
pond on
either side of the Plummer Road is brimful with cool deep
water,
evidence that beavers have been busy this past summer.
That
pond comes and goes; sometimes it’s down to a mere
trickle.
Our ride was hard because of the mud, but fun nonetheless.
We saw many partridge, and scared up a buck on our return
trip, who bounded away from the road with a flash of
white tail
and never a backward glance. I hope to be able to get in
a couple
more good rides before snow comes to stay, but if I
don’t, well that’s
okay too. I’m happy we were able to get so much
outdoor work done
last week, bug-free and in relative comfort. I treasure
these days, filled
with opportunities to work and play on Tug Hill, one of
the most beautiful
places in the world. Hard work, ample play, good food,
and a warm bed... yes!
Have a wonderful day,
Daisy
~
Friday, November 7, 2008 7:30 a.m.
46 degrees, calm, partly sunny
Big fat dark clouds are all-pervasive except for a
broad slice
of blue sky that permits sunbeams to stream to earth like
a giant
silver sliding board. This bright light makes the high
wires gleam like
snail trails in the sky and the few leaves that remain on
trees and shrubs
practically vibrate with radiance. Last night was
beautiful, and marked the
beginning of the annual Taurid meteor shower. For the
next week, wander
outside at around midnight and look straight up towards
the constellation
of Taurus; although the meteors will compete with light
from a waxing full
moon, you may see a few shooting stars, as I did last
night while walking
with the dog before bedtime. It was a perfectly still
night, no coyotes or
owls, no traffic noise from the highway, not even the
scurry of little feet
through dead leaves. All of a sudden, two meteors
streaked across the
sky, one right after the other, as if one were giving
chase. The next week
is probably going to be too cloudy for good viewing; I am
happy I thought
to venture out last night, although it was the beautiful
sinking half-moon
that made me look skyward and not the promise of a
wishing star.
Keep looking up,
Daisy
~
Thursday, November 6, 2008 7:15 a.m.
45 degrees, calm, partly sunny
There are flat grey clouds on every horizon, but
the sky is clear
pale blue overhead, as if Gomer Hill has a special
dispensation for a
potentially sunny day. For now, the sun is behind clouds,
but when it
reaches the bare sky things should warm up nicely.
Yesterday I put on
some vinyl gloves and a face mask to clear out our
bluebird nesting boxes.
Many of them had wrens in residence late in the summer,
and I wanted to
empty those out and get the spaces ready for their winter
visitors, which in-
clude mice of every description. The very first box I
opened was stuffed so
full of sticks I needed a three-pronged cultivating tool
to dislodge the mess.
The second box had an old swallows nest (or so I thought)
but when I clear-
ed away the dead grasses three deer mice were revealed
huddling together
under the pile. One scampered down the pole, but the
other two commenced
a vigorous bout of copulation, even as I watched. Mouse
porn ! Sheesh. I left
them at their fun and games and made the rounds of the
other boxes. Most of
the others were filled with sticks, and one still had two
unhatched wren eggs
enclosed in the litter. The last box had an interesting
mix of dry fuzzed aster
heads and dead maple leaves piled loosely within. I
lifted one edge to see
what might be living there, but there was no one home. I
left it alone; per-
haps when the snow returns I will be able to read the
tracks coming and
going. We are headed back into the woodlot this morning
to split what
we blocked up the past three days. We worked until after
sunset yes-
terday, clearing paths and hauling brush as the sky
turned shiny-
peach and first-prom blue, our reward for working late.
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 7:15 a.m.
42 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
Although the official time of sunrise was a half
hour ago, it has only
just appeared between two layers of clouds, shining like
a silver ball
through some high haze. There is fog in the valley and it
looks like it might
be creeping up the hill a bit, but for now we are
drenched in cold November
sunlight. Last night was summery, and we had a grand walk
after dinner, singing
a song as we walked, cautious of all the big critters
spotted in our neighborhood
during the past few months. We heard a pack of coyotes
fairly close to home, and
the hounds up the road answered heartily. I resisted the
urge to howl back, as this
sometimes will draw them closer and is best done from the
safety of the back porch.
A fat quarter moon followed our progress, slowly heading
towards the treeline, disap-
pearing behind a line of clouds before it made it as far
as the horizon. A grey squirrel
has been entertaining me all morning, scampering up and
down the poplar tree outside
my window. At one point he twirled his tail around like a
helicopter blade, faster and
faster until it was a blur. I thought, is this some
cartoon critter that has wandered
into our yard? Nope, just a little rodent getting
ready to shoot a huge load of pellets
out from underneath that cute bushy tail into midair from
the branch upon which he sat.
I have never seen a grey squirrel anywhere near our place,
not in thirty-two years of
living here. I hope he doesn’t decide to move into
our home. I put a bunch of sun-
flower heads out in the back yard the other day after I
was done harvesting most
of the seeds, for the birds (or so I thought). Animal
control officers report that
in nearly 100% of nuiscence calls about grey squirrels
invading dwellings, the
homeowners have bird feeders on the property. As cute as
this little guy is, I
hope he moves on before the warmth and safety of our old
farmhouse attracts
his attention. Perhaps the cats will take care of this
matter. I don’t wish him ill,
but I don’t want our walls mined either. Meanwhile,
we have started cutting
more firewood, as the weather has been fine and we recall
the horrendous
black fly invasion of last spring. We might as well
continue to cull trees
from our woodlot, while coincidentally sprucing up the
cross country
ski trails that have been littered with blowdowns during
the warm
season’s windstorms. It is going to be a fine day
for outdoor work,
but first I have to prepare a bushel of tomatoes for the
pantry. Our
days are still rich with harvest chores, even after the
big freeze.
We are so fortunate to enjoy such bounty !
Have a grateful day,
Daisy
~
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 7:45 a.m.
48 degrees, breezy, sunny, fog
Sun and light fog combine to make for a dreamlike
quality to
this oddly lit morning. I think the mist is forming when
the warm
air hits leftover pockets of snow which still lurk on Tug
Hill. It is
not like ordinary fog, which rolls sedately up and down
the Hill; this
shining ether swirls and shifts, and if I try to look at
it directly it disap-
pears. A sideways glance is all it will allow, and any
dampness it carries
with it evaporates from my skin almost as soon as it is
detected. And now,
we are off to vote, although it seems a futile endeavor
in a state that is so
blue (how blue is it?) that the fog has parted to
show a radiant deep blue
glow emanating from our polling place, so blue it has
colored the whole
sky. Still, there are other things on the ballot besides
the presidential
race, and I urge you to exercise your right to vote on
local issues
and candidates, even if you are still up in the air about
the ob-
vious. Once again, I think of the Rush lyrics If you
choose
not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Have a great day, and don’t forget to vote.
For something.
Daisy
~
Monday, November 3, 2008 7:30 a.m.
37 degrees, breezy, partly sunny
A few raindrops passed through the neighborhood a
little while ago,
and now there are many patches of pale blue sky appearing
in widening
cloud gaps. A raven floated into the yard, quiet as a
ghost’s shadow, and
perched in the maple tree for a few moments. I looked
away for a second
to call the dog, and when I turned around the big bird
was gone, vanished
without a trace. Blue jays call from the other big tree,
and one lone robin
warbles a few notes now and then. That little bird should
be long gone by
now, headed to a warmer place than Tug Hill for the long
winter to come.
Yesterday was beautiful, sunny and clear, but very cold.
Our morning walk
was cut short because the dog sat down about a half mile
from home and re-
fused to take one more step into the wind, stubborn as a
mule. I must admit,
even I was happy to return to the warmth of the kitchen.
We headed out again
in mid-afternoon, after the wind had died down a bit, and
made better progress.
Puddles had retained a thin layer of ice throughout the
day, and when we trod
on the shady parts of the meadow path the grass crunched
with frost underfoot,
even after a day filled with sunshine. Little clusters of
milkweed fluff have gather-
ed into windrows at the edges of the pavement; they shone
like a spun silver
garland in the rays of the lowering November sun. That is
one of my favorite
things about this month, the way the quality of sunlight
turns from the mol-
ten heat of indian summer’s flame into the hard
steely glitter of Jack
Frost’s multi-faceted gaze. If October is Van
Gogh’s vivid palette,
then November is Ansel Adams’ monochromatic view.
Enjoy this beautiful day,
Daisy
~
Sunday, November 2, 2008 8:30 a.m.
28 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
The sun is bright but not very warm on this frosty
breezy morning.
If it weren’t deer hunting season, it would be a
great day to hike in the
woods out of the wind, but all the orange clothing in the
world wouldn’t
make me brave enough to wander off the beaten path today.
I walked up
Gomer Hill Road late yesterday and heard at least a dozen
rifle shots from
every direction as the sun dipped towards the treeline. I
know there’s as
good a chance of catching a stray bullet through our big
kitchen window
while cooking supper as walking in plain sight on a busy
rural road, but
I still jump a little every time I hear the sharp crack
of a high-powered
rifle. There have been a couple of near-misses over the
years, with dirt
flying in the yard from a far-away missed shot as we
worked outside,
and one time bark exploded from a tree within mere feet
of my head.
I won’t hide out during hunting season, but I will
take care to stay out
of heavily hunted areas. As we walked back towards home
in the glow
of the setting sun, we saw a really big animal feeding in
the cornfield up
the road. I thought it might be a small bear, but once I
determined about
how far into the field it was and had some idea of
relative size, I saw it
was a huge raccoon, moving sluggishly along the
cornstubble as it
gathered fallen kernels, insects, and grubs. We
haven’t seen any
raccoon tracks around our barn since the snow fell, so
perhaps
this fat little guy has decided to den up au naturel this
winter.
He was headed away from our property when I saw him,
a good sign that he wasn’t planning on dropping in,
at least
not last night. Did everyone remember to reset your
clocks?
Enjoy your day,
Daisy
~
Saturday, November 1, 2008 7:30 a.m.
34 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny
The eastern sky is streaked with neon orange
contrails emerging from
a low line of deep purple clouds. The larger part of sky
is powder blue,
and jet tracks disperse into soft peachy ribbons as they
head further west.
Sunrise is just moments away; by this time tomorrow, it
will have been fully
daylight for nearly an hour. Don’t forget to set
your clocks back before you
retire for the night. It looks like the snowfall earlier
this week was merely a pre-
view of winter, with the real thing holding off for a
while. There is no snow in sight,
and most of the coming week looks like it will be sunny
and cool. There are several
blowdowns in the woodlot that we would like to clear away
while the weather is fine,
mostly poplars and one really big spruce. We can burn
poplar in the kitchen range;
it makes a fast hot fire but leaves a lot of ashes. The
spruce will be chunked up and
dragged off the path to be piled for wildlife refuge, a
place for little critters to hide
from bigger ones. I love working in the woods in late
autumn... no bugs, no stif-
ling heat, and it gets dark early enough that we
can’t work too late. And now,
off to start this lovely day with a walk, clad in bright
orange for safety’s
sake; even the dog sports a bow of surveyor’s tape
on his collar.
Have a great day,
Daisy
~
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